Can We Die Too Soon???

I was having a very interesting conversation with a friend a couple of days ago stemming from a post on his blog about a racing accident in the Southern California desert. A truck rolled over killing several people.
His position, consistant with conventional belief, was simply that innocent people were taken from this world before their time. This stems, in most people,  mostly from fear of death, an emotional reaction, and the erroneous belief that death is THE end of life, I'm sure that their friends and relatives, most people,  also feel this way.  My position was that nobody leaves this world before their time, it's just not possible.
As to innocence, let's touch on that, they did go to the race, and get too close to the action.  Did the racer break the rules by accelerating at nearly full speed through a crowded area?  Yes he did. Did the promoter or organizer fail to provide protection or barriers for the spectators?   Yes, he or they did.  Did the promoter or organizer fail to provide enough security to make sure the crowd of spectators stayed the full 100 feet back, as they were told to? No he or they did not.  So who was at fault? Everybody was, the spectators were too close, the driver went too fast and the organizer or promoter failed to provide protection and/or to keep the crowd back far enough. Nobody was innocent.
But let's talk about the real issue, were these souls taken before their time?  I have always felt and now 99% believe that this is impossible.  As I told my friend, there have been several incidents in my life that could easily have resulted in my death, but every time I walked away. Not always without a scratch, but walked away. A couple times I walked away when someone else didn't. It was their time to go, not mine.  You could say the same thing about that accident, the driver could easily have been killed when the truck rolled, but he walked away and some spectators didn't. It was their time to go, but it wasn't his...yet. 
So, contrary to what most of us believe, I believe you can't die before your time. No matter how random, coincidental, accidental, or impossible it seems to be, if he or she died, it was their time to go. Also contrary to what most of us believe, I know, yes know, can't prove but know in my gut, that death is not the end, emptiness, nothing, being dropped in a hole and forgotten.  It's the end of this life for sure, but not the end of all life, I don't know to what, or to where, but we move on. There are lots of theories, Heaven, Hell, the Astral plane, reincarnation, etc.  We won't have the real answer until we move on.
Also contrary to what most of us believe, I know I'm not really Lee Murray, at least not permanently.  I'm really a soul who is experiencing being Lee Murray for a time, before moving on. As I've said before for us to believe that we are the body we're inhabiting, for me to believe I'm only Lee Murray, for my friend to believe he's only Bill, or any of you to believe you are only the person you've been since birth, is the same as climbing into your car and believing that you're only a Ford, Chevy, Jaguar or Rolls Royce. Whatever body you're in, it's just a vehicle, a Ford, Chevy, etc. only there to get you from entry to exit in this life, before moving on, to whatever or wherever comes next, and a new vehicle.
There is a belief that between lives or bodies, ie vehicles, the real you, the soul that comes and goes each time, rests and recharges, studies, visits friends, or just relaxes between forays into this world, or another. The place this happens is called the Astral plane, and is said to be similar to the physical world, but cleaner and on the higher levels more beautiful, more intellectual.
Like the Physical, the Astral is made up of seven levels, lower and higher, and everything including us is vibration also lower to higher. In this world rocks for instance live, but at a much lower vibration, and people are at a higher, but possibly not the highest vibratory rate. On the subject of people look at those you know, there are those who are clearly on the low end of the vibratory scale, emotional, drugs, drink, pussy or prick, are all that they care about, they'd kill without a care, or you may know someone on the higher end who is saintly, almost non-human, to whom stepping on an ant is anthema. Most of us though are somewhere in the middle, neither saint nor sinner, at the same time a little of both. Many souls are living in the Astral, much as we are living here, working and raising their vibratory level, preparing to move on to the next level, and the next, others are like all of us, are visiting there while still living in this world, or have left this world and while intending or required to return here for another life or lives, are there between lives.  The Astral is like this world in many ways say those that have visited there and apparently time is used there in much the same way as in this world.
It's also taught that in preparation, we plan. We determine what is needed, what result is wanted, what is our goal. How are we going to achieve that?  We work with others, both already living and like ourselves waiting to be born.  It's said that many of us stay together life after life, cliques if you will. The description acting troup has been used, and it's apt in the sense that we fill many roles, in this life I'm a brother, in the next I'm a friend, then a parent, or grandparent. A soul can be male or female, depending on the role in a particular life, the role to be played. So who was your grandfather in one life may act as your wife, or brother, or best friend, or whatever in another.  There are many aspects I haven't touched upon.
Why those souls who left the world as a group in the accident mentioned above chose to do it that way, I don't know. But everything I've suspected from a young age, everything I've learned, tells me it was neither coincidence or accident, except in appearance. It may have been part of the drivers destiny, or their own, but it was planned, long before birth, and they've known each other through many lives, although the accident may have been their only contact in this life, or not, that I don't know.  One thing you can count on is that in most if not all cases, they'll be back.
I wouldn't expect anyone operating on emotions to accept this, what is after all a somewhat radical position, requiring thinking outside the box, to some degree. Most of us in fact are unable to look beyond the norm. Generally believing that they have no control, that accidental death is possible, and more often than not that there is nothing after death, as they believe, more often than not, there is nothing before birth. They are taught this in one way or another every day of their life.  Nothing, you're born, you die, Nothing...  To me it makes no sense, but to most it's the only sensible way of looking at it.
One question that I've had for a long time, and never really gotten a good answer to is this: If everybody incarnates for a purpose, and others are involved in achieving that purpose... Well let's say that I am here for a specific purpose to learn or accomplish something. Others act as parents, brothers, sisters, relatives, friends, lovers, casual aquaintences, etc.  Do all of these others also have purposes or goals in their lives or are they here simply as supporting cast to me?  Looking at the accident, obviously there was a purpose or it wouldn't have been destined to happen, but was it so that the driver would learn or accomplish something, or was it  so that one or all of the crowd did? It concievably could even have had no purpose, like war or disease, simply providing a means of leaving, with no lesson.  I know that seems hard  and cold, but the fact is few if any of us get out alive, to paraphrase the title of Jim Morrison's biography, and while I'm sure we'd all like to go in our sleep after a long, productive life, relatively few of us do. 
I think I'm getting over my head and will stop now...

Lee Murray

Thinking About Destiny Again

Still thinking about the groundhog post the other day.
I'm constantly hearing and seeing in person, in the news, and in dramas the plantive cry that "he, she, it, went too soon." Of course our loved ones, friends and relatives would think it's too soon, no matter when we die.  Possibly the groundhog's friends and relatives are saying it went too soon, who knows?  But, it's a little shocking to see or hear "he or she went too soon," in the media, who, with few exceptions, never even heard of us, let alone met us.
What's the truth?  Is it even possible to die too soon?  I can understand that if a baby or young child dies, whatever the cause, the natural reaction is to blame ourselves, or somebody, there must be something wrong, their life had just begun after all, and they had years ahead, it's clearly too soon to lose them.  The truth is, and nobody, even me, wants to face it, that death could have happened to us at any time, from the moment of conception. Not birth, but conception is when the body is created and starts the trip to death. When the soul or spirit actually enters that body is another conversation, I think also at or soon after conception, but I could be wrong. I have heard of studies that proved children were capable of learning in the womb though.  Yes, I said children, speaking about the body growing in the womb, not fetus' or any of the other quasi-scientific names that make the murder committed by abortionists less abhorrent.
Anyway, to answer my question, I don't believe it's possible to die before your time. Your time to die may be after 100 years or 1 minute, but that's when you'll go, not one millionth of a second sooner.  Speaking from personal experience, so far, I've had several opportunities of being killed before my time, and have walked away without a scrape every time. I've said as long as I can remember that I'm not afraid of dying. It's still true, in theory.
I know we're all spirit, that goes without saying. I've said, also pretty much as long as I can remember, that for us to believe this body is who we are, ie for me to believe I'm Lee Murray and that's all, is about the same as you climbing into your car, and believing you're a Ford, or Chevy, etc.  These bodies of ours aren't real in any sense, other than that they're vehicles allowing us to exist in this level. Every level has a body, neccesary for survival in that plane, but they're all nothing more than just vehicles for the real you, the spirit. 
When I do die, I have a good idea of what happens, where I'll go, and that more than likely I'll be back, so it's not terrifying.  On the other hand, I learned recently when I had the stroke or whatever the hell it was that I'm in no rush to die. One thing that does scare me though is becoming crippled or blind. If it happens it's probably for a reason, pre-destined, and I'd deal with it, who knows I may even learn something, but avoiding that is one reason for seeing the Drs.
It's taught that each life we live is for a purpose, what it is few if any of us know, but we're always here to learn something, or to teach something. The first thought I had after saying that is, so serious, so what you're saying is we don't just come to hang out, kill some time? Sex, drugs, and Rock and Roll?  Or something similar... 
It sure seems like that's all some are here for. I suppose it's possible, maybe this world is like a time share for the astral, some of us come to serve, to fulfill a purpose, while others are on vacation, enjoying the flesh, experiencing the experience of living in this world. Anything's possible I guess, but it's not what I've been taught, and personally, while I've overall had a pretty good life, if I just came to hang out I'd like to kick the butt of the astral time share salesspirit that sold me on the idea.  It seems that lots of lives, lots of lives, are spent having and raising kids, that's it just raising kids, or so it seems. 

But the truth is, whether we spend our lives drunk, loaded, and banging anything with a heartbeat (or without), having and raising kids by the carload, working to the exclusion of anything else, winning the Pulitzer or Nobel prize, or whatever, the real reason we incarnated, the big picture, is a mystery to most, if not all, of us.
One premise that's taught is that prior to each life, we sit down with the others that are going to be with us during the life, to plan and discuss what's going to happen, birth to death. Nobody ever seems to know if it's a second by second pre-destination plan, or just a big picture with lots of room for free will type plan.  Then after death, arriving back in the astral, we sit down for a debriefing, or analysis of the life just finished. Again, nobody seems to know why.  Just to see if we passed?
Also another question, does each and every spirit, (parents, grandparents, relatives, friends, aquaintences, workmates, boyfriends, girlfriends, strangers you interact with, etc.), who's interacting with me in my life have their own plan? Are they all there just for me this time, and me for them next time? Instead are we all reincarnating together with a common goal or lesson to learn? How about the souls who're already here before our birth, older people grandfathers, grandmothers, parents?  If they're already here, living their lives, according to their destiny or plan, I can understand that my birth could be part of their plan, but when did they take part in my pre-birth meeting? It's taught that we leave our bodies and go to the astral, whenever we're unconcious or asleep, some can do it conciously. Perhaps that is when they did it?
Have you figured out yet that I'm as confused as anybody else about this?  I've studied and read about this for years and while it makes sense, at the same time it doesn't.
Another question I've brought up before, is why are our past lives in a linear time frame? At least so far as I know, they're starting in the past and moving closer to the present. If we are, in fact, spirits, coming here from a spirit plane, call it astral, or etheric, whatever, where time as we here know it doesn't exist, then why couldn't we incarnate in any time on this plane?  Time is after all a concept of this world, and probably a purely human concept at that. Cats, dogs, and cows may have a concept of time too, but I haven't asked any so I don't know.

That's enough for now I think...

Lee Murray

Whoops not the Astral plane...

The Buddha explained, "All human beings have 83 problems," from an excellent article at Beyond Blue written by Therese Borchard

I found this article very helpful and am passing it along to any readers that may also. You'll find it below as I found it. It was written by Therese Borchard who is the author of the blog Beyond Blue on Beliefnet.com, Beyond Blue  and is featured in the Huffington Post. She's also the author of  "Beyond Blue: Surviving Depression & Anxiety and Making the Most of Bad Genes" and "The Pocket Therapist: An Emotional Survival Kit."

I've read several of her articles, she has a great deal of insight.

Lee Murray

Mindful Monday: All Human Beings Have 83 Problems

Monday August 3, 2009
Categories: Mental Health
On Mindful Monday, my readers and I practice the art of pausing, TRYING to be still, or considering, ever so briefly, the big picture. We're hoping this soul time will provide enough peace of mind to get us through the week!
I sometimes think that the kids who had it hard growing up have a substantial advantage over the brats who were fed from a silver spoon when it comes to handling problems that they will encounter in their lives.
Take my friend, Vickie.
When she was two, she was running with a glass ornament in her hand. She fell, the ornament shattered, and the glass cut out her right eye.
She was never the same.
Wearing an eye-patch through her grade school, adolescence, and high school years, she was mocked by classmates, called a monster, and treated terribly. She felt ugly and unlovable, so she turned to food to comfort her and gained weight.
One day a man approached her and told her he could fix the eye ... give her a glass eye that perfectly matched the other one. She couldn't believe her luck! From that hour on, she has told me numerous times, she never really had a bad day. Because she always compares her current trials and tribulations to the days of the eye-patch, and she'll take the news problems hands down.
"Think of it this way," she told me the other day. "If you begin your day with the simple motto, 'Life is crap,' then it can only get better from there!"
This is, in fact, the First Noble Truth of Buddhism: "Life is suffering." To be human is to experience pain.
In his book, "Eastern Wisdom for Western Minds," Victor Parachin tells of a great tale about an old farmer and the Buddha. He writes:
An old farmer went to the Buddha seeking help for his problems. First, he had professional problems. In his part of the world, farming was extremely difficult and his work completely vulnerable to weather. Even though he loved his wife, there were certain things about her he wanted to change. Similarly, he loved his children, but they weren't evolving the way he had hoped and anticipated. Listening carefully as the man explained his frustrations with life, the Buddha responded, "I'm sorry, but I can't help you."
"What do you mean?" questioned the farmer. "You're a highly regarded great teacher who has insight into all of life's problems."
"All human beings have eighty-three problems," the Buddha explained. "A few problems may go away, but soon enough others will arise. So we'll always have eighty-three problems."
The farmer, both indignant and frustrated, asked, "So what good is all of your teaching?"
To which the Buddha replied, "My teaching can't help with the eighty-three problems, but perhaps it can help with the eighty-fourth problem."
"What's that?" the farmer asked with great curiosity.
"The eighty-fourth problem is that we don't want to have any problems."
Parachin goes on to explain that even the most spiritual among us have problems. He writes:
Oddly, the illusion that life should be free of suffering is often heightened in those who pursue spiritual practices, because they erroneously believe that all problems will disappear if one is "spiritual" enough. Thinking the right way, speaking the right way, acting the right way--none of these can provide immunity to problems, although these practices can prevent many issues and minimize the fallout. What spiritual practice can do is help us deal with those matters in a calmer, more balanced way. The Buddha is right: Because we live in an imperfect, messy world, we will always have "eighty-three" problems. Expecting not to have problems is one of our great illusions about life. If he were here today, the Buddha might very well say: "Get real. Wake up. Abandon the illusions about how life should be and face life as it really is."
So, even though it sounds negative to start off your day with "life is crap," it can actually help you deal with reality in all of its rudeness and inconvenience. It means starting the day with an understanding of the First Noble Truth. And, just like Vickie said, it can only get better from there!

Filed Under: acceptance, Beyond Blue, Buddhism, depression, problem-solving, problems, Therese Borchard
posted by Beyond Blue @10:00am